😡 Ugly Americans ➖ Open Thread

I first heard the term“The Ugly American” when I picked up the book by Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer many years ago. I read it, didn’t like it much and wasn’t pleased with the portrait of Americans in the book. Were we really like that? I didn’t know and back in those days, before social media and blog comments, most of us didn’t claim to know much about things we didn’t know much about.

There have always been know-it-alls in society and unfortunately when it’s in the family we bear with the loudmouths for the sake of their spouse and children. They think they know-it-all, we know they don’t know much.

After the book came the movie The Ugly American with Marlon Brando. Not being a Brando fan I didn’t see it. I always found him more annoying that riveting. I was annoyed by the differences between the books I read and what Hollywood did to them in film and often didn’t see a movie made from a book I had read.

“Ugly American” is a pejorative term used to refer to perceptions of loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless, ignorant, and ethnocentric behavior of American citizens mainly abroad, but also at home

These days I am riveted by the ugly Americans that live among us. Nowhere can you better see them exposing all their ugliness than on Social Media and on the comment section on blogs.

I am always happy to find new friends and like minded people online with whom to converse. I can converse with people from all over the country. I find that helps us know each other better.

I also find new friends just up the road that I would never have “met” in the normal course of events.

Sadly one of the first things I noticed when I began conversing online was the number of angry people. Anger certainly has a place when warranted. However too often the anger seems excessive and unreal. Too many angry people parroting the same angry words.

When I am angry with elected officials I let them know. Not only on some blog comment section but by writing, calling, emailing or until health issues made it impossible by going to “Townhall” meetings. Provided you state your case civilly and without screaming like an idiot. It lets off steam and you aren’t as angry afterwards. At least I’m not.

One thing that has angered me for a very long time is the media. I was a regular voice in our local paper’s “Voice of the People” section for years. Got lots of hate mail for that but I kept speaking my piece. I also included my name. I wouldn’t do that today.

I always voted. Even when I had to hold my nose. Because I considered voting both a civic duty and my ticket to complain. If you don’t vote or do something, no matter how small, about your complaints then you’re just another whiner.

Now I wonder if I didn’t just add to the mess by voting for the least worst person. I’m saddened by that, not angry.

I have never gotten emotionally tied to a candidate. Some I’ve liked, some I’ve liked very much. Most not so much and some I had to hold my nose til it hurt in order to vote for them. But love a politician? Perish the thought!

Both the primary elections and the general election of 2016 showed many of us a side of the American voter that we had encountered before extended beyond normal or realistic bounds.

Many people got so emotionally tied to a candidate they seemed to have lost their silly minds.

I thought the Obama supporters and their worship of a mediocre man like Barack Obama were fools. Then along came those that would find no fault with a man like Donald Trump. I was flabbergasted.

Others hero-worshiped Ted Cruz to the point of insanity. Many still do.

It was all so unreasonable it was hard to believe. Sadly that was just the beginning. The aftershocks from the election, with the loss of Hillary Clinton and the unbelievable win of Donald Trump were/are of an ugliness I find hard to believe.

Media has outed itself to a degree that they will regret in time to come. Trust once lost is very hard if not impossible to regain.

Many of us had noticed the left leaning of the media, how could we not, but until Obama came along they at least made some pretense of being unbiased. Then along came Trump and they became deranged.

CNN, which once was one of the “The Most Trusted Names In News” has descended to the point where Anderson Cooper told Jeffrey Lord, a supporter of the president, that if Trump “took a dump on his desk,” he would still defend him. Of course Cooper later apologized. Said it was “unprofessional”. Ya think?

How low has media gone where something like this happens not because of an oops and an open mike but when the host, who invited Jeffry Lord, like him or not, to be a guest on his show and then speaks to him like that? Not professional? More like lacking common decency.

I find it astounding that in a country where body image is so important that so few people find fault with ugly thoughts and words. They may be outraged by the vulgarity of others, like so many are by Trump and then respond with something as vulgar or worse.

Many Americans have become very ugly in their rhetoric and then add hypocrisy to their flaws. Unless and until it stops we will remain divided.

12 Responses to “😡 Ugly Americans ➖ Open Thread”

Great post, Marge. You are so right abt the anger among so many Americans toward so many Americans. The parties themselves and the media bear a lot of responsibility for that ginned up animosity to be sure, but part of it is the frustration of people who feel like they are not being heard.

Those are the people who, by and large, seem to have voted for Trump. Along with the hero worshipers, that is.

As for the media, it was APPALLING what Anderson Cooper said. I sure don’t remember him ever saying that to ANYONE during the 8 years of the scandal-plagued Obama Administration. Hell, he was part of the problem in NOT exposing more the scandals in which Obama was engaged. To be so vulgar, though, on television, is completely unacceptable. He should have to do more than apologize, though. He should be suspended.

I have to hope that people seeing how horrible the media has become will begin to hold them more accountable. This morning, it was either Alan Dershowitz or Newt Gingrich who said that the media members are midgets compared to the POTUS, and it was high time the Trump Administration held them to account for the demeaning manner in which they treat him. I think that would be a start since, love him or hate him, he IS the President and THEY are not. Respect for the office if nothing else is in order. That doesn’t mean don’t challenge him, but their arrogance and condescension toward him are unacceptable in their field. If they cannot find it within themselves to be objective, they should seek employment elsewhere, IMO.

🙂 New Orleans city workers Thursday hauled away the forty-foot-high statue of Jefferson Davis from a downtown park. The anguish could be felt all the way to Washington. All week long the Democrats have been yelling for the president’s removal but they didn’t mean for it to be a Democrat.

This is more the way I see the Trump administration than some evil grand conspiracy with Russia bunch. Trump’s ego won’t allow him to know what he doesn’t’ know. Superficial knowledge, as we’ve seen all too often with voters is sometimes worse than no knowledge at all.

Mika’s response is precisely one of the things wrong with journalism in this country. There has YET to be any evidence whatsoever that Russia had an impact on the outcome of the election, yet the Dems are hellbent to keep trying to act as if it did. Meanwhile, the things that actually are important and REAL are stubbornly ignored by people of Mika’s ilk. UGH.